Friends

Hajime Tabata Elaborates on Final Fantasy XV’s Shift from Open to Linear

September 3rd, 2016 by Natalie

A while back, Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata revealed that the first half of the game’s scale will be open-world, while the second half of the game would be a more linear experience.

While speaking to IGN at PAX West this weekend, he has elaborated on that statement, sharing that it’s not exactly half and half; the shift from open to more linear will happen after a certain train segment near the end of the game.

He reassures that even after players have reached the later parts of the game, they will be able to revisit and continue to explore some areas from the earlier and more open parts of the story through the main menu.

As to why this decision was made, Tabata shares, “I didn’t want to end the game in an open world type of environment…At the very end, when the main character and the enemy are going against one another, there’s a build up in the story. I wanted to ensure that that last part was a little bit different from the open world environment and more of a packed, condensed type of game experience.”

Be sure to check out the article for even more details. Final Fantasy XV will release worldwide on November 29, 2016 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

About Natalie

Final Fantasy Network contributor. College student and gaming enthusiast. Find me over at @heartimecia!

Final Fantasy official artwork, trailers, characters, merchandise, and music is copyrighted to Square Enix. Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Please read our privacy policy for more information.